Accountability and psychiatric disorders: How do forensic psychiatric professionals think?

Höglund, PontusKarolinska Institutet,Lund University,Lunds universitet,Rättspsykiatri, Malmö,Forskargrupper vid Lunds universitet,Forensic Psychiatry, Malmö,Lund University Research Groups (author)

Swedish penal law does not exculpate on the grounds of diminished accountability; persons judged to suffer from severe mental disorder are sentenced to forensic psychiatric care instead of prison. Re-introduction of accountability as a condition for legal responsibility has been advocated, not least by forensic psychiatric professionals. To investigate how professionals in forensic psychiatry would assess degree of accountability based on psychiatric diagnoses and case vignettes, 30 psychiatrists, 30 psychologists, 45 nurses, and 45 ward attendants from five forensic psychiatric clinics were interviewed. They were asked (i) to judge to which degree (on a dimensional scale from 1 to 5) each of 12 psychiatric diagnoses might affect accountability, (ii) to assess accountability from five case vignettes, and (iii) to list further factors they regarded as relevant for their assessment of accountability. All informants accepted to provide a dimensional assessment of accountability on this basis and consistently found most types of mental disorders to reduce accountability, especially psychotic disorders and dementia. Other factors thought to be relevant were substance abuse, social network, personality traits, social stress, and level of education.

Levander, StenMalmö högskola,Lund University,Lunds universitet,Rättspsykiatri, Malmö,Forskargrupper vid Lunds universitet,Forensic Psychiatry, Malmö,Lund University Research Groups,Institutionen för kriminologi (KR)(Swepub:mau)ai3290 (author)
Anckarsäter, Henrik,1966Lund University,Lunds universitet,Gothenburg University,Göteborgs universitet,Institutionen för neurovetenskap och fysiologi, sektionen för psykiatri och neurokemi,Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, Department of Psychiatry and Neurochemistry,Rättspsykiatri, Malmö,Forskargrupper vid Lunds universitet,Forensic Psychiatry, Malmö,Lund University Research Groups(Swepub:lu)med-hka (author)
Radovic, Susanna,1969Gothenburg University,Göteborgs universitet,Institutionen för filosofi, lingvistik och vetenskapsteori,Department of Philosophy, Linguistics and Theory of Science(Swepub:gu)xlunsu (author)
Rättspsykiatri, MalmöForskargrupper vid Lunds universitet (creator_code:org_t)

In:International journal of law and psychiatry: Elsevier BV32:6, s. 355-3610160-25271873-6386

By the author/editor: Höglund, Pontus; Levander, Sten; Anckarsäter, Hen ...; Radovic, Susanna ...

About the subject

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES: MEDICAL AND HEAL ...; and Clinical Medicin ...; and Psychiatry

By the university: University of Gothenburg; Lund University; Malmö University; Karolinska Institutet

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